Bearing One Another’s Burdens in Today’s Culture.

Have you ever been burdened? Has something or someone just laid heavy on your soul? 

We say things like “my heart is broken,” and while it may not seem literal, I and others would tell you, it sure feels real. 

A heart can surely feel and technically experience weakness after severe emotional stress. 

In the same way, our hearts can experience brokenness emotionally and even physically. Our souls can experience burdens due to “carrying” a load emotionally. 

And this weight is what we will see God actually calls us to carry for and with others.

The Bible mentions several “One Anothers” that can help us examine what it looks like to live at the heart of Christian community in today’s culture. 

The apostle Paul writes in Galatians 6:2:

2 Bear one another's burdens, and so fulfill the law of Christ.

He encourages us, as Spirit-empowered people in the Christian community, to carry the weight of, support, endure, and take up one another’s heavy loads, so to speak. 

And in doing this, we fulfill the law of Christ, as seen in a few verses earlier in Galatians 5:14:

14 For the whole law is fulfilled in one word: “You shall love your neighbor as yourself.”

Here, Paul quotes Jesus in saying that the entire law (the Old Testament law, the Torah) is fulfilled in this: love. Paul says that love is the law of Christ. And this law of love is fulfilled when we bear one another’s burdens.

What came to mind when I asked if you’ve ever been burdened?  What are you burdened with or by at this very moment in life?

Maybe it’s difficulty in your finances, at work, relational issues within your home or family, sickness, or in your emotional life. I know, for me, some things come to mind.

As a 30-year-old single woman, I thought life might be different for me by now. I see mothers holding their babies and long to hold my own. I watch husbands and wives care for one another and wish I had someone to care for me that way.

Unfortunately, this life is not without its challenges or heaviness. 

But if you call yourself a Christian, then you actually decided one day that you would no longer be self-reliant or self-sufficient. 

First, Jesus says, “Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest” (Matthew 11:28). When we come to Christ, we find spiritual rest for our souls. When we receive Him, we’re also given His Spirit, who gives us the power to endure and overcome. 

He also gives us one another. Galatians 6:2 shows us that we have the capacity and responsibility to help one another, especially when the burdens become unbearable or overpowering.

What can this look like for us? 

I’ve been fortunate enough to experience deep friendship and the richness of spiritual family and community, giving me a beautiful picture of Galatians 6:2. 

When the burden and longing to be a wife and a mother feels too much to bear, they figuratively lift me up, lighten the load, and remind me that all I need is found in Christ.

All of us, whether single, married, divorced, or widowed; content, dissatisfied, joyful or confused; lonely, popular, isolated, or supported, can find ultimate fulfillment in Christ alone. 

While the longings have not gone away (and, I don’t think they should), through the power of His Spirit changing and renewing me daily and the wisdom He gives me to know and understand the brokenness of this world and how it impacts me, He has made Paul’s words in Philippians 4:10-14 come alive:

10 I rejoiced greatly in the Lord that at last you renewed your concern for me. Indeed, you were concerned, but you had no opportunity to show it. 11 I am not saying this because I am in need, for I have learned to be content whatever the circumstances. 12 I know what it is to be in need, and I know what it is to have plenty. I have learned the secret of being content in any and every situation, whether well fed or hungry, whether living in plenty or in want. 13 I can do all this through him who gives me strength.

14 Yet it was good of you to share in my troubles.

Here, Paul is speaking to the Philippians, who were financial and spiritual ministry partners and supporters of his. I see here that Paul (1) made his need known and (2) gave his community the opportunity to share his troubles with him. 

He discusses what it means to have fulfillment in Christ and what helps sustain and strengthen it. I believe that the Lord provides us with Himself and with one another.

The Philippians, in their desperation and concern and his great need, came through for Paul. But if they had not known how and what he needed, it wouldn’t have been as possible. Actually, they were concerned but unable to meet his needs and carry his specific burden until he put them in the know.

I’ve had friends and a spiritual family that have been so grieved for me. My burden has become theirs. 

They cry with me, pray with and for me, hold me when I need a hug, and check in on me as much as they can. 

There were moments in my life when I felt, as a single woman in ministry, I shouldn’t be vocal about my needs. But my vocalization and God’s help to open up has resulted in his power and law of love being on great display in my life.

Instead of being ostracized by those around me who are in a different stage of life or circumstances, people in my life have the desire to empathize and stand with me in deep pain, sometimes limitation and grief that they may not always understand or relate to. They have sometimes stood with me when no one else would.

For us Christians, we face this choice. 

Will we stand with and bear the burden of those that we may not fully understand? 

Will we allow a difference in experience to hold us back or isolate another? 

I hope that when given the opportunity to be supportive friends who bear the burden or those in the community who remain distant, we will be those who draw near and bear the burden.

And I also imagine a possible outcome: those around us never experience the healing and longings they desire on this side of heaven.

How would we walk with them? 

How would we bear the burden? 

Would we stay present on the good days and the bad? 

The days when it was easy for them to have hope and the days when hope was harder to come by? 

The days we have our own burdened hearts?

We all carry heavy burdens—sometimes literally or within the physical and sometimes figuratively or within the soul. 

And we have others who are called to carry the burdens with us. And we are called to carry the burdens of others ourselves. 

But no matter the circumstance or situation—past, present, or future, Jesus calls us as empowered by the Holy Spirit to Galatians 6:2:

2 Bear one another's burdens, and so fulfill the law of Christ.

Practical Next Steps

Journal and prayerfully consider ways you can bear the burden(s) of 2-3 people in your life. Reflect on also your own burdens and ways you can allow others to bear them alongside you.

Get Involved by discovering one or more of the following:

• Join a community group
• Join a church and attend weekly services
• Attend a prayer meeting
• Check-in on a friend or neighbor
• Serve your community (the unhoused, school district, neighborhood, etc.)

Read and Meditate: Galatians 5, Galatians 6, Philippians 4.

Reflection Steps

Reflect on these questions as you think about bearing one another’s burdens:

What burden(s) are you carrying?

What could it look like to allow others in so that they carry your burden(s) with you?

What could it look like on a daily and weekly basis for you to bear other’s burdens?

Let’s Pray Together

Father, help me to love like you. I want to fulfill your law of love, so I pray that you would fill me with your Spirit, the only one who gives me strength to do so. I pray that you would bring people into my life to carry my burdens and illuminate those whose burdens I am also meant to carry. May we fulfill your law of love in our community and beyond. Amen.